Zeitschichten des Klons. Anmerkungen zu einer Begriffsgeschichte

Temporal Layers of the Clone. Remarks on a Conceptual History. This paper aims at a history of the clone concept in 20th‐century life science and culture. The first part of the paper is concerned with conceptual history approaches. Here, the idea of ‘Zeitschichten’ by Reinhart Koselleck is discussed and its implications for the history of science are explored. In the following parts of the paper, I trace the historical dynamics of the clone concept in various fields of 20th‐century life sciences. I argue that the clone concept, which originated in plant breeding around 1900, soon developed into a technical tool in a variety of research areas. With this, specific meanings became attached: the idea of standardization, genetic identity, and mass reproduction. A further connotation of the clone was the idea of stagnancy with respect to processes in time: The clone was seen as something that was exempt from evolutionary changes. In the last section of the paper, I trace the shifting meanings of the clone concept in the 1960s and 1970s, when the clone became a widespread metaphor that pointed to future biotechnologically driven possibilities to reshape the nature of human beings. In this regard, the debates of the 1970s are analyzed as a turning point: Whereas utopian and eugenic visions predominated the debates in the 1960s (when the human clone was seen as something which will occur in a distant future), the 1970s discussion focused on the advent of a biotechnological era and the human clone had became a reality.     

Die Einheit der Wissenschaftssprache. Einige wissenschaftstheoretische und wissenschaftshistorische Anmerkungen

Among those conceptions of the history of science which deal with the formation of theories is the concept of the unity of science. This unity is in turn based on the unity of scientific method, the unity of scientific laws and the unity of the language of science. After a systematic explication of modern approaches, historical conceptions of the unity of the language of science are described and analyzed. To these belong first of all the idea of a mathesis universalis and the so called Leibniz program, which leads to the architecture of a Leibniz world.     

Die Entdeckung des Unbewußten um 1900: Wissenschaftshistorische Anmerkungen zu Sigmund Freud

The Discovery of the Unconscious by Henri F. Ellenberger has become a common topic in the historiography of (dynamic) psychiatry. But many users of this term have still the opinion that Sigmund Freud was the unique discoverer. In reality there was a scientific context at the fin de siècle, which corresponded intensively with Freud's original concepts and formed their implications (e.g. Darwinism, Neurophysiology). Besides well-documented synchronic analogies Freud implanted diachronic traditions within his psychoanalytic theory. Especially, his main work The Interpretation of Dreams implies Greek mythology as well as natural philosophy of romanticism. Freuds special concepts like ‘transfer’ and ‘resistance’ have to be analysed as historical metaphors.     

Vom GIS zur Geodateninfrastruktur

Geographische Informationssysteme sind nicht mehr ausschlie?lich ein Werkzeug für Spezialisten. In immer mehr Bereichen der raumbezogenen Dokumentation, Planung und Analyse werden diese Werkzeuge eingebunden. Der Beitrag beschreibt die Entwicklung und analysiert die technologischen Hintergründe. Viel wichtiger als technologische Ver?nderungen aber sind organisatorische und gesellschaftliche Ver?nderungen, die auf dem Wege zur Informations- und Wissensgesellschaft eine neue Bewertung des Nutzens von Geoinformation bewirken. Geoinformation wird zunehmend als Wirtschaftsgut betrachtet, das am Markt gehandelt werden kann und ein erhebliches Wirtschaftspotential aufweist. Allerdings ist der Markt für Geoinformationen durch Strukturen gepr?gt, die die Nutzung des wirtschaftlichen Potentials deutlich behindern. Geodateninfrastrukturen gelten als ein wichtiges Instrument zur überwindung der Marktbarrieren und zur Etablierung neuartiger Wertsch?pfungsketten und innovativer Jobchancen für Experten für die Veredlung und Verdichtung von raumbezogenen Informationen.